


6:15 am

by alifletcher2010



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Blood and Violence, Character Death, Crime Scenes, Detectives, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 16:16:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19771870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alifletcher2010/pseuds/alifletcher2010
Summary: Rowan Whitethorn runs past the same beautiful blonde everyday. Until he doesn't.





	6:15 am

**Author's Note:**

> Crime show typical violence

The hill was absolutely killing Rowan’s legs. He hadn’t been this miserable since he was in basic training. He must’ve really let himself go during the last few months. Transferring to the Terrasen altitude wasn’t helping either. Yeah, he was _definitely_ never doing this run again. He glanced at his watch, 6:15. Rowan groaned, he’d only been running for fifteen minutes.

Right as he crested the hill though, all thoughts of his burning legs fled from his mind, because right around the bend came the most stunning golden haired girl he had ever seen. And her owner wasn’t half bad either.

Who was he kidding? Rowan knew right then, as he made eye contact with the beautiful blonde holding the leash of the sleek haired golden retriever, that he would be back the next day. And the next day. Because he was going to get her name, even if it killed his legs.

\---

A month later, and Rowan was on a nod and a smile basis with the beautiful blonde. Like clockwork, he still passed her everyday at 6:15 am. Rowan wasn’t terribly frustrated with the progress, he _was_ still getting settled in Terrasen. Work had kept him busy though his caseload wasn’t nearly as bad as it had in this other precinct. But today, today he would say hi, at least. And hopefully get her name, if he was lucky.

The sweet golden girl she ran with seemed to be feeling his mood, because once 6:15 came and they rounded that bend, she ran right up to him and jumped on him. The unexpected weight of her body toppled him to the ground.

“Fleetfoot, no! Fleetfoot, heel!” her owner called after her. The dog immediately obeyed and darted over to her owner and sat at her feet, wagging her tail.

A hand was extended to Rowan and he took it, small in his own. She helped him to his feet and Rowan was impressed with her strength.

“I’m sorry about that! A squirrel has been tormenting her our entire run today and she’s just a little wound up.”

“I don’t mind, I’ve been hoping for a chance to meet her this last month and now I have the perfect excuse. Do you mind?” She shook her head and Rowan knelt to give Fleetfoot some loves. “Who’s a good girl? Who’s a good girl? You are, yes you are!” Rowan didn’t even care that he was acting silly, he was a sucker for a beautiful dog.

“I love how dogs can reduce grown adults into blubbering babies.” Rowan looked up into her sparkling turquoise eyes and laughed. 

“You say that like I should be ashamed, but I’m not. Not even close.”

“Well, I can appreciate a man who is secure in his masculinity. I’m Celaena.”

“Rowan.”

\---

After learning her name, Rowan found his runs to be a lot less grueling. In fact he looked forward to them now. Every morning, he stopped to pet Fleetfoot precisely at 6:15. He and Celaena would chat for a few minutes while jogging in place to keep their muscles warm. Rowan left every interaction with her grinning like a fool. Lorcan teased him relentlessly about the extra spring in his step and Rowan would’ve punched him in the face by now if he wasn’t so happy.

“When are you going to ask me out, Whitethorn?”

“Huh?” Rowan was bent over, giving Fleetfoot her morning loves. 

“I said, _when are you going to ask me out_ , Rowan?” Celaena repeated, annunciating every word.

Rowan laughed nervously. “How about today?”

“Well?”

“Caelena, how would you like to go grab coffee tomorrow, we can just meet here and finish our runs together?”

“Perfect.”

\---

Rowan sighed and looked at his watch.

6:17. _She’d never been late before. But maybe Fleetfoot chased a squirrel up a tree and they would be coming around a corner any second._

6:23 _Maybe her alarm didn’t go off?_

6:28 W _as she ok? What if she fell?_ He walked around the corner but a quick glance revealed no one coming up the path. He sighed and walked back to their meeting spot.

6:33 Rowan couldn’t wait any longer. S _he wasn’t coming._

\---

Rowan was late. He had waited for Celaena again that morning after she didn’t show the day before. After today, he promised he would give her the space she obviously needed. He just wanted a chance to apologize for _whatever_ he had done to make her uncomfortable.

He sighed as he settled into his desk. The bullpen, was surprisingly, empty.

“Whitethorn! Get in here!” Lieutenant Salvaterre called from the meeting room. “We’ve got a priority and Chief is pissed you’re late. Even the commissioner is here! So get over whatever girl troubles you’re having and get you head on straight.”

Rowan gave Lorcan a vulgar gesture as he got up from his desk. As he walked into the meeting room, he heard Chief Gaveriel giving his briefing. His heart plummeted into his stomach at the sight of the case pinned to the board. He could barely hear Chief's words over the sound of panic in his mind.

“Last night, Aelin Galathynius didn’t return home from class. As you all should know, if you haven’t had your head in the sand for the last few months, she is the daughter of Rhoe Galathynius, candidate for governor. She’s a senior at Terrasen University. She was last seen yesterday morning leaving for her daily run by her neighbor. It’s unknown as of yet if she made it to campus or not, so let’s get a team down to the university and a team over to her apartment to establish her for sure last known sighting. Come on folks, clocks ticking!”

“Wait!” Rowan yelled. “There’s no need...She went missing on her run.”

Because staring at him from the board was Celaena.

\---

“Do you want to explain to me what your relationship to the victim is? Because you suddenly shouting out previously unknown information in the middle of my briefing doesn’t come across well.”

Rowan sat across from Chief his office, trying to stop the shake in his hands. Commissioner Maeve stood behind Gavriel, glaring at him with her cold, heartless eyes. _Calaena was Aelin and she was missing?_ His thoughts raced all over the place and he couldn’t focus on any one thought. _Why did she lie? What if I had kept looking for her? Was she afraid of me, is that why? What if it happened while I was standing right there? Oh rutting hell, I should’ve looked harder for her._

His silence obviously did not sit well with the Commissioner because she cut through his thoughts. “Were you involved with her? Because CSU is over at her apartment right now and if they find one hint of your DNA at her apartment, I will boot you off this case and so fast you’ll get whiplash Detective. The media is all over this and if they get even a hint someone in this precinct was involved with her and it’ll be mess for the department.”

“No, nothing like that, I swear.” Rowan found the words finally to answer . “I just ran by her everyday, same time. She wasn’t there yesterday. And she’s always there, her and her...dog.”

 _Oh shit._ Rowan had completely forgotten about Fleetfoot in the chaos of the morning. He met Gavriel’s eye. “She’s also got a golden Chief. Where she is, that’s probably where Aelin went missing.”

\---

They found the crime scene in record time. With Rowan’s help, they were able to narrow down the timeframe down to half an hour and her path from her apartment to where she would cross paths with Rowan was easy to trace. Half a mile off the path, in the woods, they found it.

Fleetfoot was there, tied to a tree, bruised and malnourished. She never would’ve been found if they weren’t looking for her. It was the only good thing about finding the scene. Because looking at the rest...Rowan couldn’t imagine how Aelin was still alive. There had been an intense struggle....and the _blood._ There was so much of it. Rowan didn’t have a hope that it was anyone else’s other than hers.

He couldn’t think about her, couldn’t think about what happened to her...what was _happening_ to her. Not when her had her dog cowering under his desk. Rowan was the only person she wouldn’t lash out at. The horrors the poor girl must’ve witnessed.

Fenrys’s voice shook Rowan from his dark thoughts. “We’ve got a ransom call.”

“Start a trace. I’ll be right there.”

\---

It wasn’t a ransom call. It was a voice that repeated an address twice and then hung up. 

The address lead them to an unassuming house in the suburbs. Even though it was likely a trap, Rowan insisted on being there.

The house was empty. Completely. No car in the garage, no furniture in the rooms, no dishes in the cabinets...nothing. It was utterly pristine though, not a speck of dust. And eerily silent. 

There was only one place left to search. Rowan glanced at the SWAT team leader and nodded. The team broke down the locked basement door with Rowan on their tail.

“Detective!” a voice called from ahead of him. The team moved to the side and let him pass. 

Because there in a pool of her own blood, bleeding from multiple stab wounds, was Aelin. A note was pinned to her shirt.

_“Run”_

\---

They barely made it out. Three members of the SWAT team where in the hospital, one was likely never going to walk again.

Rowan could still feel the way Aelin felt in his arms, cold and small, as they ran out of that house seconds before the explosion ripped through the peaceful street. He could still feel her blood on his hand, warm and slick. Her breathing had been shallow and he worried with every step he carried her it would go out entirely. 

Her breathing was stronger now, more steady. Machinery beeped all around her, indicating with every passing minute that she was still there, still fighting. She was lucky, the doctors said. Much longer and she wouldn’t have made it.

But Rowan knew better. It wasn’t luck at all. Someone knew. Knew how long it would take for them to find her. Knew how long she could last before bleeding out entirely. A person like that was detail oriented, to the point of being meticulous, domineering, neurotic, deranged...and had connections, high up connections.

_Arobynn Hammel._

Biggest crime boss in the city and someone who stood to lose a lot if incorruptible Rhoe Galathynius became governor,

“You know this is a house of healing, right? All your thinking is making it hard for me to heal,” Aelin’s voice croaked from the bed, shaking Rowan from his thoughts.

“You’re awake,” Rowan couldn’t keep the relief from his voice.

“I wish I was dead,” Aelin moaned, “I should’ve known you were a cop.”

“Detective actually, Detective Whitethorn. Do you remember anything that happened Aelin? Was it Hammel?”

Aelin didn’t have to reply, the look on her face was enough.

“You have to give me a statement Aelin, we can finally put him behind bars.”

“You haven’t been here, in Terrasen long, right?”

Rowan nodded.

“They probably haven’t gotten to you yet...you have no idea what’s going on... The world you’re about to enter.”

“What are you talking about? You can tell me, We’ll protect you. ”

“He’s got so many people in his pocket...so many. High up. You have no idea…You won’t ever be able to protect me....”

Aelin slipped back into slumber, leaving Rowan with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

\---

Rowan felt himself being shaken awake.

“Chief?” Maeve smiled down at him, her smile not reaching her cold eyes. “Oh...sorry, Commissioner, what are you doing here?”

“Did you sleep here all night Whitethorn?” Rowan glanced at his watch. 6:15 am. He would’ve laughed at the irony if he could laugh right now.

“Uh, yeah. I guess. I wanted to be here in case she woke up and had any information about her attackers.”

“And did she? Wake up?” 

Rowan was about to tell Maeve what Aelin said, but a weight dropped into his stomach and he couldn’t open his mouth. He was being paranoid. “Uhhh...no she didn’t wake at all.” He would tell Maeve the truth later, he told himself, once he knew if there was any weight to Aelin’s words.

Maeve smiled again and something about it, or maybe just the insanity of the last few days, sent a shiver down his spine.

“Excellent. Don’t you worry about Miss Galathynius. I’ll keep an eye on her. You just focus on finding out who did this.”

\---

The precinct was a mess again when he walked in later that morning. He really should’ve been used to it by now.

“Hey,” he said, pulling Chief Gavriel aside, “What’s going on this time?”

“Aelin slipped into a coma this morning. Apparently she took a turn for the worse early in the morning. We’ve had another call come in. Galathynius has to drop out of the election or they’ll make sure Aelin never wakes up.”

Rowan felt as if the ground had fallen away under him. Aelin had been fine. He had _talked_ to her…

Maeve.

Aelin had said he had people in his pocket. High up.

“I need to make a phone call.”

\---

“Just because you’re my cousin, doesn’t mean I have to help you Rowan.”

Rowan could barely keep the frustration from his voice. “Enda, I just need to know if the FBI has a solid case against Hammel.”

“Rowan, I can’t tell you this kind of stuff...I have a husband and a family to protect now.”

“I know, I know...but Enda, this is big, big stuff here. A whole conspiracy. I think some of the officers here are involved.”

“You think? Of course they are involved Rowan. We can’t take Hammel in because our case against him keeps falling apart. Evidence gets destroyed, witnesses go missing or clam up. He’s not working alone. We don’t even think he’s the one pulling the strings. It’s someone high up in the city. Someone with access and influence.”

“Someone like the police commissioner?”

“Maeve? It’s possible. She’s...ruthless. The chatter is she and Galathynius are on the outs. He believes she allows too much violence. If he gets elected, she’s done for. Do you have any evidence?”

“I-I don’t know. It could just be coincidence.”

“If it’s her, we need evidence. Hard evidence. If she really is Hammel’s puppetmaster, she’s likely got some ledger, or some sort of way of keeping track of all their people and transactions. If you can find that, we can take them all down in one swoop.”

“Okay...I’ll see what I can do.”

“And Rowan, be careful. You don’t know who you can trust.”

\---

He told Gavriel only. Gavriel picked three others, Fenrys, Lorcan, and Connall. The five of them would break into Maeve’s office and find the ledger.

It had gone smoothly. The guards had been easy to subdue, and the police headquarters had been nearly empty with everyone working around the clock on the Galathynius case. Fenrys had been able to bypass the security system in seconds. 

It had all gone so smoothly. _Too smoothly._

Everything went south the second he pulled the ledger from Maeve’s safe.

“I’ll take that Whitethorn.” He turned to find Maeve, standing at the door, Lorcan and Connall standing behind her with their guns drawn. There was a flash of gunfire and pain ripped through his body. He saw Fenrys and Gavriel drop to the ground before it all when dark.

\---

Rowan awoke in a hospital bed. Pain coursed through his entire body. Slowly, he blinked his eyes open. Sitting in a chair next to his bed, looking as beautiful as ever and very much not in a coma, was Aelin Galathynius.

“You look like hell Whitethorn.”

“I feel that way. Wha-What happened?”

A voice came from the other side of the room, “I think I can answer that.”

Lorcan.

Rowan sat bolt upright, headless of the agony it caused his body. “I ought to kill you.”

“Rowan,” Aelin put a placating hand on his chest, pushing him back down. “He saved your life.”

“Explain.” Rowan said through gritted teeth.

“I didn’t mean for it to happen, Rowan, I _swear._ I couldn’t believe it, that Maeve was dirty. So I called her and told her about the operation.” 

“You called her!” Aelin pushed him back down again.

“Just, just let him finish Whitethorn.”

“She claimed Gavriel was the dirty one and he was trying to pin it all on her. Connall and I were supposed to wait for you guys to get the ledger and then subdue you. Catch you in the act. But it went wrong. She...she killed him, Gavriel, in cold blood. And Connall, he must’ve had some resentment against Fenrys, because he put four in Fenrys. We don’t know if he’ll ever wake up, Rowan. I took them both out, got the ledger, and called it in.”

“What happened to the ledger?”

“It’s in the hands of the FBI. They moved against dozens of police officers and city officials two days ago. They’re rounding up more as we speak. It’s over.”

\---

“Come on Whitethorn, you can do ten more laps.”

“Go to hell Galathynius.”

Recovery was hard. And Aelin wasn’t making it any easier. She sat next to the therapy pool, taunting him with her long legs and conniving smile. Somehow, even though she had sustained multiple stab wounds and he only had _one measly_ gun shot, she was healing so much faster than him. He didn’t know if he wanted to pull her into the water or kiss her. Probably both.

“They brought Arobynn up on formal charges today. And this time, I think it’ll stick.”

“Good.”

“Your pal Fenrys woke up today.”

“Fantastic.”

“Lorcan has been cleared by the investigation.”

“Wonderful.”

“My father is posthumously awarding Gavriel with a Medal of Valor.”

“I heard.”

“Ok, Whitethorn, what is your deal?!?”

Rowan, exploded. “You! You are my deal! Why are you here? I already know all of this! And you are driving me insane!”

“Well maybe, I’ve been sitting here wondering when you’re going to get your head out of you ass and ask me out again!!!”

Rowan was struck completely dumb. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So how about coffee, tomorrow?”

“No, I think after that little outburst you definitely need to take me out to dinner.”

\---

_One year later_

It was exactly, almost 6:15 am. Rowan bent over the sleeping form of his sweet, darling, and completely frustrating girlfriend. He planted a kiss on her forehead and slowly shook her awake.

It had been a long, hard year. Investigations and prosecutions were still on going. The void Gavriel’s death had caused had been filled, but the precinct still struggled. Recovery had been long and work had been hard, but somehow, through it all his and Aelin’s relationship had thrived. And Rowan was finally ready to take that final step.

“Fireheart, Aelin, wake up.” He knelt next to the bed, and took Aelin’s hand in his. She blinked and slowly made eye contact with him.

“A year ago, I was finishing up the longest run of my life. I was determined to never run again after that, but right then, at 6:15 am, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen rounded the bend and I knew-”

Aelin cut him off. “Rowan, are you proposing?”

“Uh yeah?”

“At 6:15 am?”

“Uh yeah? It was the time I first saw you.”

“That’s great and romantic and all, but it’s Saturday. Could you try again at a more reasonable hour? I promise I’ll saw yes.”

Rowan rolled his eyes and laughed. “Only because I love you.” 


End file.
